Yankee Knights
by The Projective Otaku
Summary: Sidonia stumbles upon a garde from another ship, leading to internal drama and multiple revelations.


Yankee Knights

Chapter 1

0.0000001% Chance

Vice Commander Yuhata Midorikawa stormed onto the bridge. She had been planning this night for months, getting Tanikaze alone for dinner. Then the Gauna attacked. They had just been sitting down when their wrist watches started beeping at them incessantly. Of course, Tanikaze had been put on alert and would be deployed. He was already sitting in the ready room, not a hundred yards from the Tsugumori. The bridge crew wisely averted there masked gaze from the fuming Vice Commander and busied themselves with their assorted instruments and controls.

"Report!" She barked as she mounted the Vice Commander's station next to the currently unoccupied Captain's station.

"Forty-five Gauna inbound zero-three-six on plane from Sidonia's base course." Replied the tactical officer. Yuhata bowed her head in thought. She pushed her frustration at the Gauna attack out of her mind and focused on her job. The release in tension was palpable on the bridge as the Vice Commander calmed down. She looked up a few minutes later, cool and collected.

"Deploy two divisions of sixteen gardes each. Give Samari the first division, and give Tanikaze the second." Yuhata looked down at her plot. "How long until intercept?"

"If we launch now the strike force will intercept the Gauna in four-nine minutes six-zero-eight-four kilometers short of Sidonia." Replied the tactical officer.

"Make it forty-five."

* * *

><p>Tanikaze nervously gripped the controls to the Tsugumori. He had been sitting ready in the launch tube for nearly ten minutes before he got the go order. The nervous fluttering in his chest disappeared as he pushed the acceleration and a full eight gees pushed him back against his flight chair. He rocketed out of the tube alongside seven other gardes, and three more sections of eight followed. His breathing began to normalize as the inertial compensator came up to full strength and the g-forces relented. Sixteen gardes. This was his biggest command yet, and he was determined to make good of it. After everyone had checked in his division joined with Samari's in a thirty-two palm formation.<p>

* * *

><p>Vice Commander Midorikawa watched as the gardes joined up and sped off to meet the threat. Her frustration at the situation reared itself again, but she forced it down. Humanity couldn't afford for her mind to be clouded. After about fifteen minutes of watching the small ring of gardes march across the main display, the elevated Captain's station came down. The captain, standing in perfect stillness atop the platform looked steadily around the bridge as it came to a halt a meter above Yuhata's Vice Commander's Station.<p>

"Midorikawa, what's the situation?" the Captain asked.

"Ma'am, we have forty-five Gauna inbound from the north-east of Sidonia's base course. I have sent thirty two gardes out to meet the threat, they are twenty eight minutes from turnover." Yuhata replied.

"Who's in command?"

"Samari, with Tanikaze as her second."

The Captain nodded her head a little bit at that. She went back to emanating that feline grace that always made the nerdy Yuhata jealous. Meanwhile the gardes continued to crawl across the main display. The bridge was silent except for the clicking and clacking of the bridge crew for about thirteen more minutes.

"Uhhh… Sidonia, this is Unit 005, we're picking up some strange RADAR feedback directly in front of us." Yuhata brought the RADAR returns up on her personal display and frowned.

"Rodger that Samari, we have them too." Yuhata's forehead creased as she continued to frown at the returns. It wasn't that they were _getting_ a lot of RADAR returns, it was that the ones they were getting were scattered, and as the data began to refine from the gardes' RADAR, a single contact was established in front of the formation, but it was small, only about the size of a human being, maybe a little smaller. Yuhata continued to frown at the small dot on her screen.

* * *

><p>Tanikaze was getting the returns too, and they worried him. The Gauna had been getting more and more clever and a small RADAR return might as well be an enemy contact. He aligned his MAC at the contact, but something held him back from shooting. He couldn't explain it later, but in that instant it made perfect sense not to shoot, and a split second later he got a good look at the contact.<p>

* * *

><p>Yuhata was getting worried as the contact got closer to the formation. An asteroid wouldn't scatter their returns like that. Did the Gauna find out a way to beat their sensors? Yuhata shivered at the thought.<p>

"Sidonia, this is Tanikaze, I can see the contact."

"What is it?"

"It looks like a garde, I repeat, it looks like a black gschschschsch…" The static filled Yuhata's ears like thunder. She stared open mouthed at the main display, now just a field of static. Most would call her infatuation with Tanikaze a simple school girl crush, but the love was very real… for her at least. That infatuation now turned on her, strangling her, tightening her chest and shaking her knees. Even the Captain was silent, outwardly looking calm and collected. After a few seconds of shocking pain, a small beep started sounding throughout the sudden silence the filled the bridge. Yuhata shoved her pain deep and looked up.

"What the hell is that?" she asked in a perfectly conversational tone, making it seem all the more psychotic. The communications officer gulped before answering.

"We are getting a low-band radio signal ma'am. I've never seen it actually used." He said, hurrying to look as busy as possible in order to avoid the Vice Commander's wrath. He typed for a few seconds on his keyboard then gestured to the main display, where a voice analyzer came up.

"…day, mayday, this is Echo-Yankee-Kilo-Niner-One-Seven, Gauna have entered detection envelope and I am moving to engage, any Fleet assets in system, I need support. Mayday, mayday…" The message repeated itself several times and Yuhata's jaw dropped as it played. She didn't recognize the language at all, no one should. In fact the word language had almost fallen out of use because no one had herd any language other than Sidonian in over five hundred years, since the Aposimz had sent its last message. The Aposimz had been Australian and had sent its message in English, but Yuhata had only ever seen the message in its translated form, but the Captain had been around when English was still part of the Academy curriculum, before the Aposimz' message. Underneath her mask the Captain began to sweat. The implications of contact with a new human being would be revolutionary, another seed ship would double Sidonia's defensive capabilities… and facilitate the Captains 'Into the Breach' course. The Captain suddenly realized that the entire bridge crew was looking at her.

"Get those Gardes back online, I want them to form up on that black garde, designation EYK-917." She said, her voice cool even though her insides were twisting at what was to come.

"Captain, what's going on?" She looked down to see Yuhata staring up at her. Her face had become lined with barely suppressed fear and pain caused by confusion.

"Electronic Warfare." The Captain replied. Yuhata tended to be obsessive, bossy, and emotional; but the Captain had to admit, she was smarter than anyone else on the ship. That brain now went to work on her words and her fear and pain turned to wonder. Sidonia had not routinely mounted EW pods on their gardes in more than seven hundred years, and the gauna emitted no electromagnetic signature, which left only one option left. Her smile widened as she gave orders to activate Sidonia's own countermeasure to burn through to their gardes. The Captain reached down and activated her command override for the communications systems.

"This is the Imperial Japanese Seed Ship Sidonia to unknown unit Echo-Yankee-Kilo-Niner-One-Seven: Identify yourself." A few seconds passed before a response came in,

"Rodger that Sidonia, this is Lieutenant (Senior Grade) James Stuart of the United States Ship Essex; Charlie-Victor-Victor-Alpha-Niner-Zero-Zero, I require assistance. Gauna have entered my detection envelope and I have made a crash carbon thaw." The Captain was silent a few moments before answering.

"We'll be waiting for you." She said before closing the circuit. "Yuhata, send a medical team to the garde hanger and have a nano-surgery capsule prepared." Yuhata's eyes widened. There were only three NSCs on the ship and the nano-fluid used was notoriously hard to manufacture, they were only used in case someone deemed essential was in danger of imminent death. The other reason was because the Captain had been speaking in the other language.

"Yes, ma'am." She said after only the slightest hesitation. The Captain nodded before turning back to the hectic confusion of the battle as Sidonia's sensors came back online.

* * *

><p>Tanikaze sighed in relief and thanks as the Tsugumori came back online. He would have been extremely surprised by the EMP if the Mk. 17 simulator hadn't included garde-on-garde scenarios, and thanks to the limited number of automated systems on the Toha Juukou Mk. 17 'Tsugumori', he was able to reactivate the analog and hydraulic systems after a total system reboot. The heavily automated Kunato Developments Mk. 18s that his fellow garde pilots had been flying would probably major refit before they could fly again. The first system he used was the comms.<p>

"Sidonia, this is Tanikaze, our formation has been impacted by an electro-magnetic pulse. The Tsugumori is fine, but the eighteens will need a ride home."

"Rodger that Tanikaze, recovery teams have already been deployed. Your new mission objectives are to tail and capture the unknown garde unit, designation EYK-917 piloted by one… Suchuāto Jēmuzo." Tanikaze was surprised to hear the Captain come over the comms instead of Yuhata, which meant that the situation was pretty dire. So surprised that he missed the pilot's odd name and the hesitation the Captain had when she translated it.

"Yes, ma'am." He said before rocketing off in the direction he had seen the garde go. He had no idea how he was going to subdue the other garde, much less catch up to it. It had overtaken a thirty-two garde clasp formation from a relative dead stop in only a few seconds, simultaneously keeping the pilot from being turned to mush and popping off an EMP strong enough to fry at least thirty-one garde units. That spoke of an untold amount of power and durability on such a small platform. Tanikaze shook the thoughts from his head and pressed on.

Before long he began to pass through massive clouds of expanding placenta. The reduced visibility from the clouds and a lack of RADAR returns gave to an incredibly creepy atmosphere. Eventually Tanikaze started getting the scattered RADAR returns that had originally announced the arrival of EYK-917. It took him three hits to triangulate the position and actually home in on the near-invisible matte-black mech. Tanikaze's jaw dropped as it came into view. The first thought that struck him was that it was incredibly angular, with no rounded corners or edges. The second thought was that it was bristling with weapons. In its right hand it held a spear nearly as tall as it was, but it wasn't a Kabizashi. The head was of a silver substance that glittered in the starlight and was far more securely attached to the shaft than a kabi. It had two large cannon looking weapons, one on its right forearm and one protruding from the top of its back unit, and three smaller rotary guns sticking out from exposed weapons bays on the back unit. The third thought was that it looked like suissuno cheese, covered in craters and holes from combat and micro-meteor impacts.

As he grabbed on to its forearms he saw inside the cockpit, which still had a transparent canopy like the Tsugumori. The pilot wore a uniform remarkably similar to his, except that it was black instead of white. He was also strapped into his seat by a complex series of straps and belts Tanikaze could only assume was incredibly uncomfortable. His arms, the only part of him appaerently not strapped in, floated in front of him, which meant that he was unconscious and that his internal gravity had given out. He shook his head, dragging the disabled super-garde back to the Sidonia at a leisurely 3g.

* * *

><p>Nagate burst from the cockpit like a coiled spring as it opened back on Sidonia, which surprised Sasaki, who was standing on the recovery pad that he landed on.<p>

"Hey!" She said as she stumbled back. She came up quickly and threw a punch, only to be thrown off balance again as her fist passed through empty air, Nagate already leaping across the ten-foot chasm between the platform and the walkway, heading toward the garde bay he had manhandled the non-Sidonian mech into. Tanba simply grunted, he had enough problems to worry about with thirty-two fried gardes without adding angsty teenage pilots to the list.

Nagate ran the two hundred meters or so that separated his bay with the one he had put Suchuāto into. On the way he passed several pissed off pilots with wounded pride over being towed back without killing a single gauna or withstanding any credible damage. He seemed to be the last one there in any case, as everyone else had been able to dock while he had to dock Suchuāto and then dock himself. The Captain and Yuhata were there, along with Samari, Seii, Isana, and an expanding crowd of curious and/or angry garde pilots. Two mechanics where on their hands and knees on top of the cockpit when he got there.

They seemed to be discussing something, before one of them shrugged and brought a hammer down on the central transparent panel. The entire machine powered up again, weapons whiring and engines whining in a standby faze. A reverberating female voice filled the hangar,

"Unauthorized attempt at entry, detected: Identify" It said in a language Nagate didn't understand. The Captain stepped to the front,

"Captain Kobayashi, IJSS Sidonia." The machine seemed to glow brighter for half a moment before a massive sound shook everything. At least he assumed it was a sound, he didn't actually hear it, just the slow rumble and the sound from the ship responding. The machine glowed again as it stopped a few moments later.

"Reverberal Scan: Complete, Detect a Nineteen percent change in structure from files, updating; Cyber Scan: Complete, downloading files" A few moments of silence before it spoke again, this time in Sidonian. "Identity confirmed: Captain Kobayashi of the Imperial Japanese Seed Ship Sidonia; Initiating AI Release." As the machine said it a blue light seemed to project from the front and the holographic image of a woman appeared in front of the Captain. She was young, mid-twenties, and wearing a flight suit similar to that he had seen Suchuāto wear. Nagate, being a teenage boy, couldn't help but notice a generous bust and hips.

"Captain," she said, bowing shallowly, "my name is Leah, my pilot is injured and need immediate medical assistance, would you be willing to provide that?"

"Of course, I already have a medical team here." She gestured to a trio of police medics, two carrying a stretcher and another carrying some form of monitoring equipment, on the platform next to the cockpit.

"Very well, thank you." Leah said, disappearing, as the cockpit behind her opened and depressurized, creating a hissing sound of escaping air. The intricate web of belts and straps Nagate had seen had undone themselves and retracted into their various housings, so all the medics had to do was gently pick him up and place him on the stretcher. As the platform came down to the walkway, the medics hurried off in the direction of the med bay. He moved to go after them, but the Captain stopped him,

"You can go see him later, Nagate. He went through a crash carbon thaw, and frankly I'm surprised he was conscious as long as he was. Until he recovers, it won't be a pretty sight." He grimaced and nodded. Although he was generally a complete imbecile when it came to social interaction, even he understood that as the Captains way of saying 'back the fuck off'. He shook his head before heading off to the locker room.

* * *

><p><strong>Ok, so I don't know how long I can keep the momentum up on this, so be prepared for long waits... maybe<strong>

**The USS Essex in this is CVVA-900: CV = Carrier, V = Vaccum, A = Antimatter**

**EYK: E = his ship (Essex), YK = his squadron (The Yankee Knights) (We'll find out more about that later)**


End file.
